A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Jane Lapotaire | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jane Elizabeth Marie Burgess 26 December 1944 |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | Rowan Joffé |
Jane Elizabeth Marie Lapotaire (née Burgess; 26 December 1944) is an English actress.
Biography
Lapotaire was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the daughter of Louise Elise (Burgess). Her stepfather, Yves Lapotaire, worked in the oil industry and was originally from Quebec, Canada.[1] From the age of two months, she was raised as a foster child by an old-age pensioner, Grace Chisnell (Granny Grace), who was also the foster mother of Lapotaire's own biological mother, a French orphan, who was abandoned in England. When Lapotaire was about 12, her biological mother made a bid to get her back. The child welfare department of the Suffolk County Council intervened and decided that the mother had this right. Lapotaire chose to be with Granny Grace, but lived with her biological mother and stepfather, who worked in various French oil companies in North Africa (particularly Libya), three times a year. She also adopted their family name. The Lapotaires in North Africa were Francophones, and like French colonials at that time, lived around the French embassy. Granny Grace died in 1984 aged 96 and Louise Burgess died in 1999.[2][3]
She studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1961 to 1963, the programme was a two-year course at that time, unlike the three-year course today. She had earlier auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but failed to get in. She joined the Bristol Old Vic theatre company in 1965.[4] She joined the National Theatre in 1967, was a founding member of The Young Vic Theatre in 1970/1971, and moved to the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974.[5]
Her performance in the title role of Marie Curie (1977) first brought her to wide attention. In 1978, she performed the title role Édith Piaf for Pam Gems's play Piaf, directed by Howard Davies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-upon-Avon and in London at the Warehouse Theatre, Covent Garden in 1979. Two years later, the show moved to Broadway. Lapotaire won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play that year.[6]
She was married to director Roland Joffé from 1974 to 1980;[7] they had one son, screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé (born 1973). Following their divorce, she was for a time the partner of actor Michael Pennington.[8]
She returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company in October–November 2013 as the Duchess of Gloucester in Gregory Doran's adaptation of Richard II with David Tennant in the title role.[9] This was followed in October–December 2015 as Queen Isobel in Henry V.[10][11] On Christmas Day in 2014, she appeared as Princess Irina Kuragin in season five, episode nine of Downton Abbey.
Writing
Lapotaire has written a number of memoirs: Grace and Favour,[12] Out of Order: A Haphazard Journey Through One Woman's Year,[13] and Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child,[14] which includes an account of her childhood growing up in Levington Road, Ipswich.
Illness
On 11 January 2000, while preparing to teach a course on Shakespeare at the Ecole Internationale in Paris, Lapotaire suffered a massive cerebral haemorrhage. Four days after her collapse, she underwent a six-hour surgery and spent the next three weeks largely unconscious.[3] She writes about her recovery in Time Out of Mind.[15]
Associations
Lapotaire is honorary president of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Club,[16] and is president of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe.[citation needed]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Crescendo | Lillianne |
| 1972 | Antony and Cleopatra | Charmian |
| 1973 | The Asphyx | Christina Cunningham |
| 1975 | One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing | Miss Prescott |
| 1983 | Eureka | Helen McCann |
| 1984 | To Catch a King | Irene Neumann |
| 1986 | Lady Jane | Princess/Queen Mary |
| 1996 | Surviving Picasso | Olga Picasso |
| 1997 | Shooting Fish | Dylan's Headmistress |
| 2000 | There's Only One Jimmy Grimble | Alice Brewer[17] |
| 2005 | Can't Stop Breathing | Daisy (short movie) |
| 2016 | The Young Messiah | Sarah |
| 2020 | Rebecca | Granny |
| 2021 | Smyrna | Filio Mpaltatzi |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Sherlock Holmes | Annie Harrison | Episode: "The Naval Treaty" [18] |
| 1971 | Jason King | French maid | Episode: "Buried in the Cold, Cold Ground" |
| 1971 | The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes | Emily Shaw | Episode: "The Case of Laker, Absconded |
| 1972 | Play for Today | Alice Stocker | Episode: "Stocker's Copper" [19] |
| 1972 | Owen, M.D. | Jennie Hopkins | Episode: "It Never Rains" (2 parts) [20] |
| 1972 | Callan | Kristina | Episode: "The Contract" |
| 1972 | Love and Mr Lewisham | Miss Alice Heydinger | Mini-series [21] |
| 1972 | Armchair Theatre | Jean | Episode: "On Call" |
| 1972 | The Edwardians | Alice Hoatson | Episode: "E. Nesbit" [22] |
| 1973 | Van der Valk | Elly | Episode: "Rich Man, Poor Man" |
| 1973 | Crown Court | Juliet Tomlin | Episode: "Robin and his Juliet" |
| 1975 | Edward the Seventh | Empress Marie of Russia | |
| 1976 | Play for Today | Kim | Episode: "The Other Woman" |
| 1976 | The House of Bernarda Alba | Magdalena | [23] |
| 1977 | Sea Tales | Narrator Bridget Ritsin |
Episode: "The Return" [24] |
| 1977 | Marie Curie | Marie Curie | [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] |
| 1978 | Wings | Anne Boissier | Episode: "Another Country" [30] |
| 1978 | The Devil's Crown | Eleanor of Aquitaine | |
| 1979 | Jackanory | Storyteller | Episode: "Fanny's Sister" [31] |
| 1981 | Antony & Cleopatra | Cleopatra | TV film[32] |
| 1982 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett | [33] |
| 1983 | The Captain's Doll | Evangeline | [34] |
| 1983 | Macbeth | Lady Macbeth | TV film |
| 1984 | The Testament of John | Claire | [35] |
| 1985 | Seal Morning | Miriam Spencer | |
| 1987 | Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story | Letizia Bonaparte | |
| 1988 | Theatre Night | Aline Solness | Episode: "The Master Builder" |
| 1988 | Blind Justice | Katherine Hughes | Episodes: "Crime and Punishment",[36] "White Man Listen",[37] "The One about the Irishman",[38] "A Death in the Family",[39] "Permanent Blue" [40] |
| 1989 | The Dark Angel | Madame de la Rougierre | [41] |
| 1989 | Murder on the Moon | Louise Mackey | TV film |
| 1990 | Screen Two | Helen | Episode: "Circles of Deceit" |
| 1992–93 | Love Hurts | Diane Warburg | (Series 1–2, 20 episodes) |
| 1994 | The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries | Elspeth Cost | Episode: "Dead Water" |
| 1995 | Johnny and the Dead | Mrs. Sylvia Liberty | |
| 1996 | Casualty | Eileen Jarvis | Episode: "We Shall Overcome" [42] |
| 1996 | The Ruth Rendell Mysteries | Anouk Khoori | Episode: "Simisola" |
| 1996 | Giving Tongue | Hilda Jacob | [43] |
| 1997 | McCallum | Miriam Konrad | Episode: "Sacrifice" |
| 1997 | Ain't Misbehavin' | Clara Van Trapp | [44] |
| 2000 | Arabian Nights | Miriam | TV film |
| 2001 | Midsomer Murders | Mary Mohan | Episode: "Who Killed Cock Robin?" |
| 2004 | Bella and the Boys | Mrs. Rogers | TV film [45] |
| 2004 | He Knew He Was Right | Lady Milborough | |
| 2005 | The Inspector Lynley Mysteries | Fiona Deakin-Jones | Episode: "Word of God" |
| 2006 | Elizabeth David – a Life in Recipes | Ernestine Carter | [46] |
| 2006 | Eleventh Hour | Gepetto | Episode: "Resurrection" |
| 2009 | Casualty | Maureen | Episodes: "Crush" and "Better Drowned" |
| 2009 | Trial & Retribution | Tess | Episode: "Ghost Train (Part 1)" |
| 2013 | Lucan | Older Susie Maxwell-Scott | Episode: 1 |
| 2014 | Downton Abbey | Princess Kuragin | Episode: "A Moorland Holiday" |
| 2019 | The Crown | Princess Alice of Battenberg | 2 episodes[47] |
| 2021 | Dalgliesh | Lady Lavinia Berowne | Episode: "A Taste for Death" |
| 2023 | Endeavour | Madame Belasco | Episode: "Prelude" |
| 2023 | The Burning Girls | Joan Hartman | Main role |
Theatre
Her stage credits include:[48] [49]